400 THE INSECT WOELD. 



for a long while that the Egyptians had painted the black species 

 of a more splendid colour in order to pay it homage. But in 

 1819, M. Caillaud actually found at Meroe, on the banks of the 

 White Nile, the Ateuchus Egyptiorum, which resembles the 

 Atewchus sacer much in colour, but has a golden tint. Since then 

 it has also been brought from Sennaar. The two species were 

 both probably sacred. Hor-Apollon, the learned commentator 

 on Egyptian hieroglyphics, thinks that this people, in adopting 

 the scarabajus as a religious symbol, wished to represent at once : 

 an unique birth a father the world a man. The unique birth 

 means that the scarabgeus has no mother. A male wishing to 

 procreate, said the Egyptians, takes the dung of an ox, works 



Fig. 441. Scarabaeus enema, or Enema infundibulum. 



it up into a ball, and gives it the shape of the world, rolls it with 

 its hind legs from east to west, and places it in the ground, where 

 it remains twenty-eight days. The twenty-ninth day it throws 

 its ball, now open, into the water, and there comes forth a male 

 scarabaeus. This explanation shows also why the scarabaeus was 

 employed to represent at the same time a father, a man, and the 

 world. There were, however, according to the same author, three 

 sorts of Scarabcei: one was in the shape of a cat, and threw out 

 brightly shining rays (probably the Golden Scarabaeus, Ateuchus 

 Egyptiorum) ; the two others had horns ; their description seems 

 to refer to a Copris and a Geotrupes. 



As other remarkable species of Scarabcei we represent the 

 Scarabceus enema (Fig. 441), with strong horns, the Scarabmis 



